Pippa Lamb, the woman to whom James Middleton is currently said to be
'connected,' is a close friend of Bo Guagua, whose mother was found guilty
of the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

While it remains to be seen to what extent James Middleton is “connected” to Pippa Lamb, a 24-year-old financial analyst with J P Morgan, my picture shows that there is no question about her links to Bo Guagua, the son of the disgraced former Chinese Communist Party politician Bo Xilai, whose wife was found guilty of murdering the British businessman Neil Heywood.

Middleton’s companion became friends with Bo Guagua while they were studying Chinese at St Hilda’s, Oxford, and moved in the same social circles. Bo Guagua gained a reputation among his fellow students for his generosity and hedonistic pursuits. In a trial in August, his mother, Gu Kailai, was found guilty of poisoning Heywood, an expat who had become close to the family, in his hotel room over what was said to be a row about money.

It is thought that the Duchess of Cambridge’s cake-making brother met Pippa Lamb, who is also 25, through mutual friends. They are believed to live just streets away from each other: James in a shared flat with his sister Pippa in Chelsea, and Pippa in a bolt hole just off the King’s Road.

Months before their friendship became public, Pippa Lamb donated money to James and his sister Pippa’s charity ski race, leaving a note on the website page saying “good luck to J..xxx”.

Pippa Lamb, who grew up in Brighton, is the daughter of Richard Lamb, 61, an engineer who runs his own company manufacturing technical parts for cars. Her mother, Elizabeth, 57, works as a GP at an NHS practice.

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